The Ministry of Personnel and Pensions has launched an initiative to route the skill and experience of retired government employees back into socially useful and constructive work.

“There are 50 lakh government employees today. But there are also 53 lakh retired employees, most of whom can still contribute to nation building exercise. We want to tap their skills and experience through the initiative Sankalp,” Sanjay Kothari, Secretary to the Ministry of Personnel and Pensions, said.

The Ministry has set up a portal (http://www.pensionersportal.gov.in/sankalp/) where retired Government employees willing to work in different departments or social organisations can register. “We will ask interested employees which city they would like to work, how many days in a week or how many hours a day they would like to work. It is beneficial to them as after retirement, they can still share their skills and experience and get some economic benefits in the process,” he said at a meeting at the Administrative Staff College of India here.

The Ministry is launching this initiative as a pilot project, as its pan-India launch has been delayed due to polls. The pilot will initially cover 500 Central government pensioners on a first-come-first-served basis.

“To sensitise government employees on this initiatives, a workshop is being conducted for those employees due to retire in four months and the scope of the scheme is being explained,” Kothari said.

The UK had shown interest in implementing a similar scheme for its retired employees.